Utopia
by darjeelinte
Summary: Somehow they're linked from a day of rain and cooling tea — Canon divergence
1. Chapter 1

**A/N** : this fic will probably be romance based not so much of comedy. I mean there will be as it is Gintama but just think of it as if it's a more sober arc with some humor slipped into it to ease the angst I guess. Takes place after the Four Devas somewhere near there maybe if you want a timeline.

Maybe breaking the fourth wall jokes and a play of puns with anime and manga references but this is mostly for the lack of Hijikata/Otae. It's a guilty pleasure to be frank and there aren't many stories. And the subtle moments between them made me do it haha…

* * *

Always Bring an Umbrella Even if it's Sunny!

* * *

This day, Hijikata has been looking forward to in dreading.

From the crack of dawn is when he puts on his uniform and it bears a heavier burden on him. Which he lives just fine with and goes through the honor codes with his men so they would stay in the guidelines and if not, would be to kill the individual by disembowelment, by his own hand as well as being alive throughout to the final moments.

On a strict regimen men go out into town to their assignments as he had stayed to attend to things in the head quarters.

When eating brunch, the blandness of the rice combated with the unappetizing taste of ordinary miso soup; he smokes instead of eating.

Amongst the Shinsengumi they could all can tell when the second commander was is in a rotten mood and he doesn't mask it as it trundles off in waves. While they make their way around him he's is fixated near the smoking receptacle as he goes through a third of the pack in one standing.

When going by, Kondo backs up and stands by the man.

"Toshi don't you think that's bad for you?" Kondo commented as the man then moved on to a mayo tube after smoking. What the man consumed was a detriment to most sane people, but it didn't make him stop.

Screwing off the cap and eating it as if it's a beverage he offs it in a record time.

"Hasn't killed me yet," Hijikata said as he swallows on the mixture of smoke and carbs.

When he goes off without a word Kondo knows what his friend is going through and where he's going to if not at this very moment. He'd let him be.

Work is what he can and can't do at the moment. Taking his calligraphy brush he pushes it down into rather than onto the paper, too long and it goes through the back of the paper. That's the nth time when he gives up, as he crumples it up and it's on the floor in copious amounts.

Changing out of his uniform as he hadn't really managed anything besides attempting work, he gets into his kimono and doesn't bother to have his sword. He doesn't need it today.

Already it was mid afternoon near where people would be eating lunch and generally lazing around afterwards, as time did fly when being unproductive. As he walks down the streets he doesn't let himself think until he's there. Forecasts had said that it would be sunny for the whole week but it's not; clouds dark and ominous.

Then he's in a cemetery kneeling down to.

Mitsuba Okita is engraved on it and underneath it.

Rather than being buried in the countryside beaters to home, she had instead been buried at a cemetery as her brother as he had made the arrangements. Also, it's the one his brother is resting at.

It seemed he couldn't get away from his past.

The funeral was quaint and as nice as any funeral he had been to. Which was something he'd never thought he could say about. From that, he knows it was Mitsuba that had made it nice as death wasn't. When she was in the open casket adorned with saccharine nectared flowers no one would have suspected the suffering she had to go through with the complacency that was on her face.

Hijikata doesn't speak and instead thinks.

Her funeral had been a while back and he was here because it had been exactly one year before her passing.

Radically in that one year so much had changed but he hadn't. With his habits and work everything was the same but the world wasn't. It's infuriating, really, of his progression or lack of.

While he would have done the customary things when visiting a grave but it had seemed someone already had, incense still alight and the memorial is already scrubbed on and would be again by the rain that had begun to come down.

This is a sadness he can't cope with, healthily. When it came to her it wasn't.

When they—or rather he was, just a simpleton, she had been one of the first to reach out to him. Someone that didn't view him as someone to be feared but someone to be befriended. It was then that he had fell in love with her when she had brought out her hand to his with a greeting and smile of 'let's be friends.'

Within the time that he had taken her hand he couldn't go back. Neither could she.

They couldn't deny being just friends when they both knew and we're just in suspension and that's when he began to distance himself and she was left to catch up to him.

Rejecting her confession though he desperately wanted to confess himself. With no words said, not even at her funeral when she was put to rest and not even now when he had so many still.

He drowns in his thoughts as the rain comes down to the earth harder than it had ever been that day.

—

Raindrops are on her umbrella as she's walking back with her häagen daz nicely in a convenience bag and she hums cheerful despite the dreary day and that her wooden sandals were clogged with liquefying dirt that would take a while to wash out.

Everyone is huddled under a umbrella, many couples trying to squeeze under the limited room and laughing at what couples laughed at which was themselves and she pays no mind as she makes her way home.

It's not that she isn't paying attention when she does walk into someone that makes her umbrella go askew as well as her. Making sure she hadn't land in a puddle, she's pretty sure she had been muddied though but all that matters is her ice cream which is—

On the ground. Spilled. The cream is mixing with the water and dirt and can't be salvaged. It had been the last one and in a bulk size. Anger in her, more so in her stomach, she was going to the person to give them earful or a beating but she doesn't when she sees them.

Rain is on her as it was coming down more rapidly but the person in front of her was drenched in water, as if taking a swim in the river.

"Hijikata-san? What are you doing in this weather!" The man was immersed in water and doesn't seem affected at all, dull to the world. She'd seen this once or twice that's similar to when Gintoki is lost in thought but on him it's scary. Especially what had happened a few weeks ago.

Though it was over and dealt with she'd remember how beaten up he had been.  
Defeated even.

Eyebrows that are drawn together in a serious glare at the world, it must be a pain to be like that all the time she thinks.

"Oh Otae…" he says when he moves his head to her so he looks at her, not really there, and then it's silent besides the torrential rain.

"Hello? Did aliens abduct you and do some weird memory wipe?" Then again they're both in a unrealistic anime action filled world—

Tempted to wave her hand in front of his face, she thinks against it because he is completely out of it. As she had dropped her umbrella that's between them, people were walking around the two but shooting them looks until someone actually voiced themselves, she picks it up and raises it over his head. Both are now thoroughly soaked through the clothes, more so he is and her arm is already straining from the height difference.

Strangely he doesn't reply to her and she clears her throat so maybe he will. He doesn't.

—

"Would you like to come over to my house?" When there's no answer she does stamp on his toes that make him yelp.

Downwards, Hijikata grimaced at the woman who's expectantly looking at him and she repeats herself with more force.  
If looks could commit murder…

This wasn't a day where he was in the mood for this but she practically gives him an infamous death stare.

Annoyed, he agrees and they're both ambling under the umbrella miserably as she tries to cover both of them.

"Don't bother, I'm a lost cause," he tells her but she has a determination in her eyes that tell him otherwise. Well he couldn't stop her and what was the point in trying to?

They're at her dojo and he makes himself as comfortable as he can in his soaked through clothing that's probably getting into her tatami matting, very wet where it'll get wood rot, as she's boiling tea in the kitchen. Going elsewhere she brings him a steaming towel from the washer she had spun to make it toasty while waiting for the tea leaves to brown and lose flavoring.

"Thank you." Mandatory, he says it and there isn't any significance in it really.

Then they're both sitting on the floor, a table between them as she stares at him and while he stares off into space.

While he didn't even light a cigarette yet, it's then that something was wrong.

The young girl had no idea what the man is going through but had to ask. Awkward she makes small talk. So she tiptoes to the subject of weather before she goes in with what was to be subtle:

"Why were you so…" she can't find what she wants to say next and the towel that he's occupied with is around his shoulders heating him more than it should be getting him dry.

"So what?" He challenges and tries to look as authoritative as he can in his wet kimono. If he'd had his uniform on it would make him more brought a sense of identity with it.

Of what he wanted to be but couldn't at least not now.

"Out of it? Lost?" She supplies him and that has him too. He tries to offer her an excuse but he can't and just sighs.

"At the grave of the woman I love."

That would be suffice enough.

"Ah. Ah—?" The second one is when she completely hears it and she peers at him. Confuddled she leans back as if to take in what he had said. "Uh…"

He hadn't spoken of it to anyone and he wasn't going to with her.

"Forget it." Rifling through the inner clothing to find his cigarette box he plucks out one of them. "Oh do you have anything spicy to eat?"

Waterlogged the whole packet is from him just standing in the rain but it doesn't really bother him. What bothers him is that his lighter won't light and the fact that she's ogling him. Hijikata guesses that he wouldn't get to have anything spicy.

For Tae she didn't even think that Toshiro Hijikata had someone to love. No less she had thought he and Gintoki were gay for each other from the amount of fan related things they had and how much they bickered like a senile old couple that wanted the other to die to have the whole bed to themselves. Well—maybe not to that extent but still.

"I'm sorry," she says after a while and it's all she can say. "I don't have anything spicy." When saying that, she felt as if she were apologizing for something else.

Minutes go by and she's uncomfortable, the rain from the outside not a comforting sound anymore. Then again when the thunder had begun it never was. The teapot shrieks and that causes her to jump at it more than the lightning and the amplification of it.

Excusing herself she thinks of what that man had said and what exactly was he going through.

Rummaging around for the good china cups, she finds another topic to talk about and maybe she can give him some leftover food that is in the fridge—

Awaiting her is an empty table and an equally empty seat, and there's a towel that is folded neatly in place.

It's wasteful as she drained the cooled tea that had been left there overnight.

The rain hadn't disappeared yet.

* * *

 **A/N** : Also (O)tae - Tae is her name and Otae is like in a honorific? Correct me if I'm wrong...

This is the shortest thing I have written and I might add onto this or not.

R&R and maybe I will, who knows?

 **EDIT** : the more fleshing out on Mitsuba was from me reading the wonderful works by love at third sight which have fantastic Hijikata/Mitsuba, Gintoki/Tsukuyo, Zenzo/Sarutobi one-shots and such! I highly suggest checking them out and the author!


	2. Chapter 2

l **e-luthe** : I do ship them, yup.

 **A/N** : I do multi-ship but this particular couple I feel the need to write about. Yes it''s one of Sorachi's troll ships but I can work in about 1-20 chapters of plot. Yup there will actually be a length. About the word count…Maybe 1000-5000 each chapter. It varies really. And it'll be told from two viewpoints Hijikata's and Tae. So yes I will continue this and it'll probably have longer chapters because I am descriptive and a perfectionist at writing…

Also on a side note if the chapter before and after are different I probably revisioned it because I wasn't happy with something.

 **EDIT** : Garowyn: I'm so glad there's someone else that ships them. Ah goodness I'll definitely write more!

* * *

Ginger Ale Helps a Stomach Ache But Sometimes it Just Makes You Bloated

* * *

First the woman violently steps on his toes, that'll definitely leave a bruise, if not then a hairline fracture on one or all of his toes by how he couldn't walk straight—and suddenly she's inviting him to her house for tea.

Honestly his life has gotten out of control and Hijikata needs that control. Recently, he lacks it. To where he spent hours in a cemetery. For a good reason but still.

After his part he had just gone up and left, maybe it could be taken rudely since he had left before he had even considered tea but the silence was stifling and he didn't really find it necessary to drink his woes away, in tea in the very least.

Rain wasn't calming to his as it reminded him so much of unpleasantness. It comes in a downpour today. In the midst of it he walks in it. Replacing the short lived heat with the cold rain he's probably going to get sick from it at the sudden climate change.

Downtown he finds himself in a bar and drinks himself silly to where the bartender cuts himself off.

"Hey you okay there bud?" a man lends him his ears and words that is beside him. Instead of her, he talks about his whole life story, or at least the annoying parts of it, taking a breather when the man gives him a cigar, (it isn't what he would smoke usually but it's all he has and it's free), while the man understands completely. No, he doesn't understand but he pretends he does for someone as sad as this man.

"So basically sadists are after you? Well if you're into that BDSM…" the man goes on about he ties himself up and that's when Hijikata thinks that he had too much.

When he's getting drunk, all he will have vague remembrance later is that the person is hard boiled or something like that.

Closing time beckons near and Hijikata is back on the streets, aimless as he could be mistaken as a bum on the street.

It's still raining.

When he comes upon the Shinsengumi he tries to discreetly go into his corridors. But he's too drunk to even realize he had gone through one of the windows for accessibility and the grand idea of 'this is what they do in movies to not be suspicious'.

Dwelling in his room—he's laying on his futon. Really, he should change out of his again dampened clothing and at least take a bath or shower but he doesn't have the will to. It's strangely quiet and he knows Sougo is somewhere making himself scarce due to this day as well.

Wasted was his pack of smokes, and he chucks that in the trash and misses the rim as he burrows further into the crevice of the bedding that is getting progressively damp.

It's preferable to the days when the only bed he was on the dirt or hay that a farmer had left out.

Sleep comes in a form of punishment and when he wakes up he's overbearingly hot and breathing erratically as he tries to get up but he doesn't actually.

"What the hell Toshi?" Kondo chided at him after barging in and cuddling next to him. "Who throws up on a person they love? My cuddles can't be that bad."

They aren't but he's delirious, as he shivers in his futon, stripped of his outerwear. His stomach was emptied despite that he hadn't eaten that much and still he had puked, all from him drinking. A hangover he had also been diagnosed with. Random flashes of hot and cold go up and down his body. Coughing, he shifts from him as his head is aching horribly and he just wants to sleep even if it won't do much now.

"Geez. You must really be sick if you can't even complain." Then there's a pat at his shoulder nearest to the man and he knows that Kondo means well and Kondo knows too what he has done last night. Which is why he's shortly left after instructing when to take the medicine and how many due to headache size.

Thankfully it came in pills and not that liquid crap. There's medicine for when he got wasted too However they're both difficult to take with a sore throat and he's in desperate need of something better than water.

Green tea with ginger or even ginger ale would be beneficial to him but there's no one that would look after him.

Men looked after themselves after all and Hijikata was too prideful of a man.

With his stomach that is against him, he waits it out.

—

Coming into the Yorozuya she's sharing the fried omelette that she had accidentally went overboard leaving them with about a week's worth.

Normally Shinpachi would clean the place but he was busy, in anticipation of a new teaser of Otsu in a girls band collab, something along those lines she tells them. Tidying up the place despite Gintoki complaining about his 'man cave,' and she has the pride of accomplishment when everything is cleaned.

Then Gintoki complains that everything is sparkling and it hurts his eyes and he couldn't find his manga because she organized everything but doesn't move from his position on the couch. Yet he lets her do what she does. Honestly how a grown man could complain so much about things that were suppose to be good made her agitated.

Albeit Gintoki had not or does not show it, he was still recovering from the wounds of the Four Devas. Since he was a successor he had to be well versed in those matters and so did she.

The police hadn't interfered as much as they should have with the warring town. Well after all it had been a town matter. Attack a town and a war comes knocking on the doorsteps.

Someone is at the door and Kagura bounds up and shouts loudly as there's a commotion.

No wonder they didn't get work if they fight with their clientele but she's not going to tell someone how to run their business.

Said other person makes a partial truce giving the girl a box of baked pastries. It's pink and white with cartoon animals on it.

"They're so cute! Sadist you did yourself good! Now just forty-one more to go and we'll be good for a month!" Though the box is above her head not due to his height but that he's playing keep away, she kicks him in the shin and climbs up his arm to get it as she takes a glimpse inside and hollers some more.

"Are you a lolicon? Are you courting her?! She's like—seven," Gintoki puts up his fingers to show him how much seven exactly is before he's kicked in the face by Kagura.

The two tussle around as Tae sweeps past them going into the kitchen to take care of the dishes. It'll take a while as she knows how much Kagura can eat along with a person that would challenge her being a proper grown adult. But Gintoki was neither proper nor a grown adult, rather in a stage of never growing up.

Sougo shrugs, "I lost a fight and had to make up somehow. And she wanted something to eat." Well at that age, all girls wanted to eat but Kagura did so excessively. Seeing how the girl was salivating over the cake he shoves her face into the opened box. "Careful don't get too excited."

Scratching at the side of his face, Gintoki sits up to eat some of the cake before spitting it out because of tabasco sauce that's slathered on it and discreetly so. No wonder Kagura had shouted and sped to the bathroom. Fervent washing and yelling echoes in the bathroom in her quirky accent and Tae is glad her brother is at home doing whatever he did on his computer. To be exposed to such indecency.

"That's a dishonor to cake." Gintoki is in dire need of something to quench out the fusion of the foods and he doesn't know why anyone would ruin perfectly edible desserts; the remaining cakes that hadn't gotten splattered by the impact of Kagura's face were pristine and he wished he had a tolerance for spices.

Then he goes to scratching his belly. "Where's that other policeman? The mayo freak, did high cholesterol catch up to him finally?"

That makes Tae look up from where she's washing the dishes and drying them as she puts them up. Drying her hands off she puts herself beside Gintoki on the couch though the man takes up most of it due to his sideways slouching. Jabbing him in the ribs gives her adequate space to sit comfortably.

Flipping up his red eye mask Sougo glances at them before sliding it over his eyes as he slouches on the other recliner.

"Not from mayo but from the rain. Damn idiot had walked in the rain a few days ago. I mean getting sick from the rain, what is he an old man?"

Both of them aren't spectacular at hiding their concern.

Disinterested he just wants to take a nap but Gintoki doesn't let him as he continues their one-sided conversation.

"Probably, if he had forgotten his umbrella. Alzheimer's at such an age it's shameful." Gintoki picks at his nose and Tae is repugnant by that and edges from him as he flicks it. If he's looking at her yukata like he wants to use it as a tissue again she'd going to punch him. With a warning smile he his hand move to behind his head.

As he couldn't get a wink of sleep he gives a fake yawn before getting up from a mirror like image of the lazy samurai that even Gintoki was impressed.

"Anyway I should be going. Patrolling or something. Gang activity is such a hassle with all these punks…" he lets himself out and it's just them as Kagura had dashed from the bathroom after the boy, making another earthshaking commotion outside on the streets.

Shouting goes off and then it gets quieter as they went somewhere to begin another fight.

"Speak for himself, he's a punk just in fancy attire that Souichiro-kun," it's then he notes how Tae is quiet with a look that makes him poke at her. Then Gintoki pokes her with both pointer fingers when she doesn't do anything. "Hey…I know kids can be scary—"

It's not that but the look on her face scares him. Well her face can be scary enough but... With her hands perched under her chin she takes a long drawl of air as she stares up at the clock. Batteries had the juice drained from them and Tama needed to fix that because Gintoki wouldn't.

"Did you know that Hijikata-san loved someone?" She doesn't know why she's bring it up to Gintoki but she knows that he at least does get involved with the other man, as much from them fighting.

Maybe she could hassle some information out of him while making it appear like small talk.

Taking a second to see the other, he's making a face as if he was seeing the sun for the first time. Squinting at her like she was from another planet. Apparently she's not as discreet as she would have liked.

"Don't tell me you fell in love with him. That'd be the worst you have your whole life ahead of you," he then stops or rather is stopped by Tae's fist slamming into his face.

Whining he curses at the gods and why did he deserve this as he rolls on the couch. Rubbing at his face, that one had more vigor to the other ones she's thrown at him and he opens his JUMP that was wedged in cushions of the couch and he had just remembered. A spot that she hadn't cleaned because he refused to move.

She's waiting patiently and he relents.

"I met her once. She was the older sister of that devil spawn you just saw," she's surprised and he scratches his leg with his other foot. Flipping through the pages he can't believe that's how Naruto ended. The author was a scumbag no doubt. "She was a nice girl. Liked hot sauce as much as mayo head. Maybe that's why he loved her."

From this, it's getting sober and he pads over to the fridge to drink out of the carton of strawberry milk. Having the couch to herself she draws herself closer, listening.

So there was a woman, someone he loved.

Taking a gulp of the milk, he swirls the carton in his hand to estimate how much he had left and decided to drink it all anyway. "She died from a lung disease. From how she was, Hijikata was selfish."

How she was? Selfish? How was he selfish? In her mind, Hijikata did his job and he didn't appear to be a selfish man. Usually whenever she saw him it was him taking care of business, whether it be dirty work or a mild brawl with Gintoki. Then again, what did she know.

Silently Tae urges Gintoki to continue but he's done talking as he he crunches the rectangular box in hand, staring out of the window.

There's something in his eyes similar to when he was injured but it's softer. Like he's reminiscing.

Getting that she had weared out her welcome, she leaves with a farewell as Gintoki glances at Tae from the corner of his eye.

Offing the last of and belching he rubs at his stomach. It gurgles at him and he looks at the carton. At the expiration date that had been about a week ago he throws the carton away with more force than necessary.

"This went bad. Man."

* * *

 **A/N** : I think I'll outline the whole story in one go because right now it's a skeleton. But there will be updates because I am motivated haha. I have a clearer understanding because I'm going back and re-watching things and I hope they're aren't that OOC. Then again most Gintama characters do act like that. Especially Kagura and Sougo and I also ship them too so there might be some other signs of more minor ships.

About the Naruto reference I once was into Naruto way back and then it got bad like really bad. So a bit of bashing and poking fun at through Gintoki is mandatory!

Sorry if there any mistakes I'll probably tweak some things hehe.

Anyway leave a review please they motivate me!


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N** : Thinking about it I've decided I'm going to place this around the 210-214/300+ episodes four Devas arc that could possibly end near to the Farewell Shinsengumi arc. I'm not sure if I should go all the way to the end because I have never written a full length story. It'll be a canon divergence of course but I'm still unsure.

Daily updates will become weekly or bi weekly as I like to space them out.

Comment if you actually do want a full story and I'll see what I can whip up!

* * *

When You See a Friend Semi-Naked You Want to See it All Unless They're Ugly

* * *

Her brother was blaring his pop music at least on maximum volume in his headphones as she had checked up on him. Then she had said that she would be going out but she doesn't think that he had heard her. To be sure she writes a note and puts it up on the fridge, near the handle so he wouldn't miss it.

When she bundled all of the things up with a big bow tied down it was like she was overcompensating. Still she carried it in her arms, while walking at a leisured pace.

Getting some of the newly made batch of egg omelettes that she had heat up that, as nobody wanted sloppy seconds or cold ones, she's standing in front of the Shinsengumi. For the public the gates are opened.

She twists the bag in her hands.

Every time she had to come here it's always on business, whether it be actual assistance. Mainly dealing with a gorilla stalker that was now bounding to her with his arms outstretched. To which she punches him in the jaw so he can get the message. It doesn't and he goes in welcoming her in and that she was always welcomed, (because it was Otae who had special privileges!), as subordinates keep a distance from her but do sneak in glances at the object of Isao Kondo's affection.

"What brings you here Otae-san," his voice is like overly condensed milk and stays on her name and her eye twitches. Wanting to be left alone but not knowing the place she looks over the men that were milling around. Everything is stationary but she can spy some vending machines that make the place more informal as one contained some XXX rated material.

Going over to it, it's actually magazines of women. Everyone here was a male so they were getting some.

"Is this where our tax paying money goes," it comes out in an accusation when she thumbs at it and he directs her somewhere else hurriedly as he puts her on a tour. There's the training halls were the men also have their recreational activities to the outside, a kitchen with a cafeteria, dormitories and showers, and many, many rooms.

At the end Kondo smiles at Tae as he and his men give her a singular chant and she does admit that they are formidable.

There's someone missing, a person that would have demanded everyone commit suicide for slacking off, the threat being something daily.

"Where's Hijikata-san?" Kondo is confused to why she would ask that but it's gone when she continues, "I heard he was sick."

Wondering how she did know that as the vice commander hadn't left, Kondo does lead her to his quarters while planning a reasonable time to set their date. Of course she says maybe never and then she's in the room and she can't see as all the lights are off and there isn't an ounce of light in the room. When her eyes get adjusted there is a light but it's hardly there.

Flickering in a near corner she goes over and sees the dying flame in the wick of the rice paper lamp. Searching for a lighter and knowing that he had one somewhere, it's some ways from the lantern and she ignites the mayonnaise lighter and it brings a warm orange to the walls and herself.

Balmy is the atmosphere in the room but the hand that wraps around her wrist is more balmy.

"Shouldn't you knock before—" Hijikata coughs that evolved into a full fit and then he lets her hand go and mutters something as he rolls over on his side. Besides her nearly karate chopping him, she picks out the wrinkles that were on her yukata. Crumpled containers of mayo litter the bedroom where it had missed the trash and a mildewing pack of smokes. This wouldn't do and she's still in cleaning mode as she takes them by two fingers and drops it all in the bin.

Making sure to get the smell of old mayo and tobacco off her hands she wipes it on the inner clothing so it doesn't make her garbs sullied. Placing the bag down she unwraps it while he watches her piercingly. It doesn't bother her because she's not looking at him.

"Well I just assumed that this was a room a corpse," she kneels at his side and looks for freshwater and a towel that should be near him. There isn't and Tae is glad that she came prepared taking out chilled water and pouring it in a bowl with a small towel from the large Japanese knot bag she had brought. "Then again when can corpses talk?"

More coughing and ill stricken eyes are on her, peering out from his covers. "I'm not dead yet." Watching, Tae pulls back her sleeves as she dips the cloth in the water and wringing out.

Why is she here? Her of all people she's the one he barely even knows. Yet here she is, with him.

It's a question that goes through both of them, briefly.

"I suppose not, but those cigarettes do a fine job already," he doesn't need the scolding of what he likes because he's a grown man damn it and he's going to turn from her but is stopped from the wet hand that clenches in his shoulder. Turning Hijikata, he's on his back with a frightful force and even more frightening face with a smile.

Right then and there he would have sent her out, but then she plops something on his head and it's heavenly.

Finally, it's well needed relief on his forehead and the wetness of the cloth is absorbed from his temperature as he lets out a shaky exhale. Waiting, she takes out the bento that she sets on his table in case he gets hungry and puts her hand on his cheek near to the juncture of his neck. The coldness shocks Hijikata and he jolts from it and she tuts.

"Have you eaten yet?" He shakes his head no. "Wait here."

Then his doors slide closed and he's left alone again. The ceiling becomes his past hobby of staring at when Hijikata contemplates what exactly his life was. A fulfilling one that he was in. It's a joke really.

Why was he letting her help him anyway? He was perfectly capable of taking care of himself. Then he's reminded of how he'd had gotten himself sick in the first place and resigns himself to his fate, laying there.

In the mess hall she sees that some men are having lunch. As she gets a tray she must have looked odd while filing in line. Albeit it isn't a long wait as the men let her pass and she compliments their manners. All were also scared of what she could do to them as they'd seen their commanding leader from their encounters and how some had gotten beaten up from her.

"If only your commanders could be like you," she smiles at them and she knows she's captivated them all. Empowering as she has all of them under her, she orders for a bowl of porridge, the special. Special it is, with a garnish and sauces on the side in smaller plates and she walks away.

Bidding his time, Kondo's sticks his neck out from between the vending machines to see the swishing ponytail and he then goes back into the spot. He would have leapt at her back she was holding something hot and it could have spilt on her. Or him, probably him, since she would toss it at him.

Back quicker that can't be humanly possible, she has a bowl of rice porridge. Steaming and hot she makes him sit upwards, taking off the cloth to soak in the water. Stirring it slightly so it's only mildly scalding she places the bowl and spoon in his lap.

"And no mayonnaise on it!"

Mechanically, he moves and eats while she doesn't watch but she doesn't move from her spot instead switching on his television. His head doesn't pound as much as before so it's bearable. Cooking must have been easy if she had come back so quickly. But he knew of his cooking from Gintoki and Kondo and seeing it. After he ate the majority of his bowl he sets it to the side, taking his medicine with the leftover bottled water that was out.

"What person did you steal that from?" He asks and she looks from the movie that she was enraptured in.

"The kitchen. Stole it from one of the boys, I probably made him cry." From that he smirks and crosses his arms.

"Making a grown man cry. I should kick you out for that or make you commit seppuku," he says and she just nods back like he should. Why was this better tasting than all the other times he eaten it though? There was even French garnishing and sauce and he couldn't even get soy sauce with his when he asked. Did they get a chef?

On a usual day if Hijikata had said this when he wasn't sick as a dog she would have punched him a bit but she'll get her revenge a bit later.

Instead she tartly says, "Who goes and gets themselves sick. Really, look at you."

Having a bit of fun from prodding at him she enjoys this part of the movie as her eyes reflect the screen.

"Only idiots get colds," he replies as he stares off to somewhere else in the room. On the television is Spirited Away at the part where Chihiro shoves her hand down Haku's throat.

"That's what Sougo keeps on telling me when he barges in here. He's convinced Kondo that I need to sweat the fever out but that means he's going to overheat me until I just die," Hijikata splutters as he coughs through the last few words.

The girl just sighs at him and takes off the extra blanket with strength that has to make him grab the other one down to him. "That's just an old myth people made because their noses got runny. Starve a cold and feed a fever."

Back in the country that was one of the ways they tried to cure sickness. It never really was effective.

Sweaty from being cocooned in his futon, he's probably not the best smelling thing and he tries not to appear concerned about that.

Then her hand is on him, at his forehead and she informs him that his temperature had decreased a bit. From that he snaps to attention and he stares at her as she stares back.

Her hand is still on him.

"But tell me what does someone do when they have a cold and fever?" It's left unanswered but they can still find out as that unlucky person having both is himself. The coldness of her hand make him lean into them a bit and she retracts it.

"Why don't you go take a shower?" So she probably did smell him. Tobacco didn't bode well in the rain and he didn't either.

"I would but I'd probably slip in the shower and Sougo would use that to his advantage that twerp," he said with tired malice and she just looks at him again.

"Then let me bathe you. If you don't cool off how do you expect to get better?"

When she says that she honestly didn't know where she got that point. Neither does he when he sends her an incredulous stare. All she was suppose to do was leave him with a meal and then be back at her house eating her icecream. Since today was her day off as well why was she spending it with such a shrewd man?

A shrewd man that was mourning his lost love. She is sympathetic she realizes to a fault.

"Waist up. I'm not indecent." Yet she knows she's nervous for no reason and she fidgets with the hem of her yukata.

Indecency his ass, Hijikata knew the woman practically threw that out of the window when using her strength. Sheen with sweat he knew that a washcloth to the forehead couldn't cure a fever and cold and he hadn't taken a shower in a day or three...

To her astonishment he nods and he's taking off the upper part of his clothes until he's exposed to her. Getting a glimpse, it's just bare skin that's making her nervous and it is a reason. A valid one.

"Do—do you have a another towel?" It's almost a stutter and she would be dead before she did that and he nods towards the cabinet and she takes out one. Being mindful, they'll be worse off if the place was to be wet and a breeding ground for germs.

Tense is his back she can't really say to loosen up because it'll just make him even more tenser. Should she say that he could imagine that she was a ugly old woman that had to wash his back? No that would make it weird and then she would be the one making it weird. But being quiet is suffocating her. His back is to her so she starts there wringing out her smaller towel and not scrubbing but gently moving it in circles to get the blood circulating. At least this was what Tae did when Shinpachi got sick too.

Yeah she was just doing this because it's what she does when her little brother gets too sick. At least she tries to convince herself. A few minutes go by and then Tae moves to the arms and can tell that he had eased into it when he lets out a sigh and can actually feel knotted muscles loosening.

"You know…it's rude to not even stay for tea when someone invites you into their home," it comes out softer than what she intended. Shoulder blades bunch up and she has to smooth her hand over to get him to become lax.

He wasn't going to speak but instead listened to her.

Doing this process several times she then puts the rag in the bowl. Then when she's soaking it again he moves so it's his torso and—wow. Not being modest, she's seen men exposed, Gintoki, Kondo, (too much of him), along with others she couldn't think of right now. His build was on par with Gintoki.

Of course he would be fit, despite how much mayonnaise he eats, he had to be to lead his men. However she's never seen him showing this much skin and it's a bit overwhelming.

Any girl from the cabaret, would want to be in her position but she's regretting it so badly. Scrunching out the water she starts from the bottom up. All she has to do is his torso. It'll be faster wouldn't it?

Muscles ripple under her hands and she bites back a noise that's working its way in her throat. Over his ribs and chest in a pattern and then his neck and behind his ears.

Various scars tattoo all over him and she wonders what stories they have, untold. Some are just a sliver of lighter, pliable skin and others are hard to miss and transverse over the expansion of his body. Counting them, Tae centers on that while bathing him.

Everything is so solid and warm. Probably from his raging fever. It's fast compared to the rest but Tae doesn't know how much of this she could take.

She is not going to clean his face.

"Done." She all but squeaks and he rolls his upper body and hears the releasing of tired tendons. Then he's pulling up his kimono like nothing happened and he thanks her. When he's laying down she wishes him to get better and leaves.

No one suspects the eyes that follow her dejectedly.

—

Why had she done that she is racking her head for good answers that aren't girly because those aren't answers! Her whole self was practically in a rageful type of hot embarrassment and she puts her hands to her cheeks because they're hot too and possibly as pink as he yukata.

Onto town, she stops for something other than ice cream and she craves something salty. And she hadn't gone shopping in a few days after the whole rain incident. Getting a bag of potato chips and nothing for herself she exits the store and it's already nighttime.

Had she been out that long? If she was out later her brother would have a fit.

There are other eyes that follow her but in a more cynical fashion. It's when she's walking that someone bumps into her but deliberately as she had watched where she was going.

The streetlights go off and on as if being turned off and the moon hangs in the sky, waning.

"Shouldn't you watch where you're going?" She says in a polite tone and they whistle at her. Maybe from how she could say something and still be rude but she doesn't care. It's dark but she can tell that these are the people that normal good people should be afraid of. She isn't.

Instead they hoot at her and she's aware that people are all indoors to not be involved. If they'd known her they'd know to be running when they saw her.

Most are young men and the way that they're being is like they're a bunch of middle schoolers. Wannabe thugs whatever they wanted to be called.

"We're part of the Kabuki-mono, and we're close friends to all of them," he goads and she's not intimidated. It'll take a lot more than men that could wave around swords and use them like swords to make her intimidated.

"Watch that tongue or we can cut it out for ya," what she assumes the ringleader says and that's when a knock clicks open. Several men grunt in agreement at his actions. The street lights glint off of the dulled elongated blade that's rusty. "Or—" the blade is against her throat before sliding to her cheek. "We can find other ways to have fun with it." Rusty but pressing it trails to outline her neck.

In spite of this, she laughs and the knife is gone as he blanches and the others are unsure from his actions. "Don't tell me that's how you try to hit on women. Most don't like being threatened to have their tongue cut off."

Her tone is getting annoyed and less nicer sounding by the moment and the boys start to back off. Many would be scared, but Tae isn't. As they do step back, the leader yells at them to why they're afraid of a girl as she's defenseless and they have weapons. To which they regain some bluster as they brandish them in what was to be menacing.

"Her against us. Besides she's just a—" his tongue gets jammed between his teeth, and molars fly as he's propelled into a building.

By the sheer power he's actually lodged into the building and they all waver. Verbally they all become uneasy as they shout at their leader to get up and begin to have some common sense that this was someone they should back off of.

Yet it's too late as she walks forward a grin still on her despite what was happening.

"Whoopsies! Who put this piece of garbage here," Tae doesn't even have to push as she walks through them, her geta sandals smashing onto his head and he's not saying anything now. Going for extra measures she makes sure she grinds the heel into his hair where the cracked mud is still there. Then her smile goes soured and she looks like something from a horror novel as the darkness and lighting of a street lamp emphasizes it.

"Unless you want to end up like him you should get going little kiddies." If they're not running already they are now, pissing their pants too while screaming. "This is the Queen of the Kabuki District! Don't forget that! Tell that to your mommies!"

Then she's at home and her brother is yelling at her and she throws him the bag of chips to shut him up not looking back. From how he had gotten even even more louder she had probably gotten in the mouth or glasses.

"Big sis where were you? You can't just give me these," he holds the bag as if they're the most offending thing he's had.

"Out getting something for my dear brother. I was out, didn't you see the note on the fridge?"

Shinpachi hadn't as he had been awaiting leaks of the teaser and hadn't really saw that when he passed to restock on supplies of carbonated soda and junk food.

Stretching Tae yawns, "And now I will take a long hot bath and probably eat all of the Bargain Dash we have while watching TV before sleeping it off from being full."

Left in the living room, he lets out an exasperated breath and opens the bag of chips. Taking it out, it crumbles into his hand and he looks into the bag.

"They're all broken. Geez." He should scold his sister on how to buy non-broken snacks if those were for him.

* * *

 **A/N** : Tae kicks butt nuff said. Also that whole bathing thing—yeah I'm not sorry about that. Also out of context Spirited Away. Honestly I want to abridge these names but nah.

I apologize for any grammatical mistakes!

Please review!


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N** : Somehow this is estimated to be 30+ chapters. Oh god help me on this journey. Also two updates in one day kinda since now it's tomorrow but yeah. I had a minor panic attack that it was Monday and I had the worst dream, scratch that a nightmare and woke gasping and I worked on things I procrastinated for too long. I have about 10 pages to write haha kill me.

 **Garowyn** : No I love when people give rants or lengthy reviews to see what people like! Gives me a lot to take into consideration! What you said is so spot on the way Kondo is, I myself do like him it's just the way he stalks Tae is a no for me. Anyway there will be a lot of moments, lots more as I'm so motivated to actually write a full story no matter how long it'll get! Or how long I'll take haha;;

* * *

When in Need of Assistance Yell Like You're Getting Murdered

* * *

From her type of stare, as if she would lecture whilst bearing down on him at any given minute was when Hijikata agreed.

What he hadn't agreed to was the way she had...bathed him. Well it couldn't be really a path more of a rub down. No that was phrased wrong, why did he think that.

It wasn't that it wasn't bad quite the opposite in fact, it was that she was doing it so tenderly. Not that he was a masochist in anyway he'd leave to the sadist or something but he knew of her strength. Experienced it firsthand multiple times and it's not something so dainty and soft. It shouldn't be that dainty and soft.

Things that shouldn't coincide do in this girl and that's what makes him uneasy.

When Tae had begun on his back he did shiver at the foreignness of someone else touching him in what was what was deemed intimate. Skin to skin, body contact was intimate.

They were not. They were almost strangers that were acquaintances of friends that had the occasional interactions through them. Even then they hadn't really even gotten to know each other nor did they make an effort to.

"You know…it's rude to not even stay for tea when someone invites you into their home," her voice is as soft as her hands and what she's doing and he is instinctively guarded.

So she wouldn't let this go. Then again when someone does invite someone else they stay and don't leave. How could he appease her then? Is he really getting worked up something as trivial as this.

Coaxing him, her bare hands are on him for a fleeting moment. Lukewarm seeps to something warmer and her fingertips flit on his skin and he tried to not brush her off as that would be ruder than what he had previously did.

Instead he focuses on the articles of code and then he hears her letting it soak up again as it splashes and rotates in accordance.

Now she avoids his face, or rather his eyes, keeping her head bowed and he in turn looks away so she's maybe more comforted. Hijikata knows he's much more scarier looking up close so she's probably intimidated by him.

Though he may not, his body craves contact of any sort and it was depressing to think on that.

"Done." While he relaxed his joints all were less knotted now. Feeling as if he had gotten a massage, though it really wasn't and he's better than he's been in a long time. Satisfying to get the kinks out, he's sated and lying down to maybe take a nap or maybe four naps. Or just sleep the day away like he's been doing. From eating and the half bath he feels sleepy like a kid that overstuffed himself.

"Thank you." In all of this, his sincerity is what he wants to get across. This time he didn't say it like a chore. The girl is packing up her things as he no longer needs it as his fever had been broken and she stops and looks over to him.

"All you need is rest," she says as she tied her bag and gets up. "Get better soon."

Then she leaves the only remains of her being there was the droll of the television left on low to almost mute and the flickering lamp beside him. Dark matter from the little container is on his table. The feminine scent that still lingers even after he lights a cigarette and smokes it.

"Why is Kondo-san crying 'damn you Toshi?'" Sougo doesn't knock as he waltz in. "Did you take his banana or something?"

Drawling it out on his cigarette, Hijikata blows it in the air. "Beats me."

In about half of what time that would be recovering from an illness, he's better and back on the job; the only signs of a hindering sickness being the scratchiness that was in his voice if he yelled. Which he does a lot at Sougo and Kondo and his subordinates that almost make him lose his voice to the transient joy of Sougo.

The Shinsengumi were fighting mostly with the Jouishishi, trying to pin the first faction of that Katsura; the Bakufu and Tendoshu were hectic as always. Of it a there were the Extremist Factions the dark underbelly of it all but they were quiet, which wasn't good.

Amanto were the occasional case but didn't happen as often. Humans were beginning to become the bane of themselves instead of aliens. Aliens kept to outer space and did intermingle in, space trade for the most part.

Paperwork was heaping piles upon piles and he didn't even want to tackle it with all the writing of calligraphy. Everything was to be documented and sorted and it was just a pain.

From the time he's gone there had been a rise in gang activity and more in the nefarious acts of there being actual deaths. Although it wasn't enough to rouse the public, it sent the police in a wild chase and since he was back as the demonic vice commander everything was getting normalized.

"Toshi let's go see Otae-san!" Kondo said.

Several days had went when the girl had decided to become his one day caretaker and he reflects on that then gives him a frown.

"Why don't you go yourself?" Which the man puts his hand on his shoulder and is putting him in another direction.

"Let's celebrate you getting rid of the common fever and cold. Not many men can do that!" That's a poor excuse. "It'll be fun!" For him but not for Hijikata. Using him to just see Otae he didn't care for but why did he have to come too?

When getting involved with the house of ill repute or anything related to it, it was just affair to affair with false things of bleeding hearts, dead and alive and whether it be out of love or not. Leaving them to plunder in their sins.

Preferably he would stay out of those areas of grey.

Where he was forced to go on favors and only those. Compared to nicotine, women he didn't yearn for.

Despite it, at that very second Kondo is pulling Hijikata to the beating heart that is the red light district.

—

Civilians were more unconvinced that there was any stability with the at seldom police enforcement. In the aftermath of the battling of four sanctions there were persisting skirmishes that hadn't been doused out by the passing wildfire of the conflict.

The town was still repairing itself and it was taking a lot from the townspeople. The police were more focused on stopping the criminals that caused the destruction then cleaning up the causatum. Most were as they couldn't arrest things left in the wake of travesties. Vandals were rampant as was crime and needed quelling. Extortion behind shuttered doors and creaking floorboards and loud cries in the dead of nights that had become louder.

Being the Queen of the Kabuki District she had to nip it in the bud at least in her establishment. Reverently as she was feared especially by men that got a bit too wild in the Snack Smile and was deemed the main attraction. Which was profitable and encouraged as men leeched and leered. As long as it brought a paycheck she was fine with it and did it with a bow and smile.

Age restriction wise most of the customers were men that wanted a newer flavor of the week than what life can dish out, whether it be a first timer or a regular. Mainly Japanese men with unloving wives that found solace in a younger girl's arm who was charging his sadness for money. Sad men that couldn't actually go through with an affaire and spent money on buying girls for a night because they couldn't actually have a relationship.

Or men that weren't married and were enjoying life in women and booze and anything else to gorge themselves on. Greed is the currency that is paid in this district and it goes both ways.

All in all, it was good intentions. Someone to share themselves with if for unrealistic things with it being all unrealistic based on nothing but money. However there was an influx of newer, more aggressive things that were called men, (frankly bastardly boys), that had to be kicked out on more than one occasion. Putting a ban wasn't an option and couldn't be done because it was proceeds and most older men got consternated of unruly younger men.

This was a busier night. Tables were filled and cleared, the night more than alive and not as dead as it should be, with women pouring men their alcohol with a smile to die for.

Her smile was to die for and Tae was also exhausted. Life of a hostess did have its up and downs, the ups being in pay which wasn't happening for the past few days. While being hailed over as someone requested her, she sits down as she awaits the men. There's a presence on her and at her legs she looks down and there's Kondo's face looking back at her from under the table. Her foot is on it as she looks back up, not at all fazed as she should expect this.

Face swelling up he comes out and onto the seats and is next to her like this was a completely fine occurrence. Which it was to him. Then there's someone else that sits in the other side of him and Hijikata is there. That makes her have a double take and she stares at him while he lights another cancer stick.

"Oh what brings you here? I expected Kondo-san but not you too Hijikata-san. Do you two have nothing better to do than harassment?" It's then he tries to think back of when she had stopped addressing him Hijikata-han like all the other hostesses. Well, it was an alternative to basic Kansai and Osaka terminology but he didn't know is she flip-flopped between the two.

Seeing as he hadn't answer her Kondo takes the opportunity. "I wanted to see you and I dragged Toshi along!" The man hooks his arm around his neck bringing their faces to smoosh against one another. "Sougo was suppose to come but he snuck off, that boy," he pouts at the end of it and Tae is already calling over several bottles of Dom Pérignon to deluge themselves in.

"We can't let minors come in right?" Hijikata moves from Kondo to sit back. "Then again he's eighteen...he's better off torturing someone." That causes Kondo to laugh at him and drink more of the expensive wine that is given to him. Even if it's served through his derrière and not his mouth.

While finding loopholes in Kondo's conversation so Tae can use it against him because she's too fatigued to go on any dates really, since she's at her job and it's important. Hijikata is sullen in the farthest corner of the loveseat. Not from neglect but why did he have to be here and he just wants to be eating mayonnaise but he's out of mayonnaise, is his train of thought that's going about one millimeter per fifteen minutes.

From his posture and appearance he's healthier than before which was just days ago. To herself she wonders if she had helped him in getting better. Then he catches her eyes in his and Tae makes her way to him.

"Hey Hijikata-san you sure you don't want to talk about TV dramas? I recently had a marathon watching one and no has watched it or gotten as far as me," Tae sidled up next to him, skillfully avoiding her stalker as she poured Hijikata a glass. Expecting him to take it he just puffs away on his cigar. This woman, he isn't going to drink because he doesn't want to pay tonight. All of this was Kondo's treat. Then again he was already in her debt. Technically.

Judging how much she had already ordered she wants to make him go bankrupt him. Then he would really be in her debt.

"I haven't watched any, but you can go ahead and spoil it for me," he said as he keeps an eye on how much alcohol his superior is drinking. Really they were the lawmen, in civilian clothes, but still they shouldn't get drunk. As he had learned from conjuncture.

She's more than happy to tell him the soap opera but no one is getting her more wine as they're swamped so she goes herself letting the two men wait on her. All the way in the back is a case of champagne that she grabs, and though it isn't cold it's sufficient. Then again she'd be good with something else but it's the most exorbitant.

With it in her hands, they were out of serving trays and buckets but why did she need to be formal anyway? Bringing it over with a grin that isn't as bothersome as before–

Before she's shoved in the back. That sends her sprawling and the bottle in her hand shatters from the fall. Agonizing, because she's landed into the glass which has alcohol laced in it, her hands in a yellow that's not as distilled as before when there's red in it now. Alcohol burns awfully with the combination of glass. Liquid in on her sleeves and elbows wet and she looks up at the person who did it. More so Hijikata is appalled to who would push her and gets up, Kondo too, woozy but coherent enough to be angry.

In front of her is the group from yesterday and the instigator in all his bleached glory has his hand still out. A bandage around his head as if he has a toothache but Tae knows it's probably to make the teeth she had knocked out in place. It would be a funny picture to take if it weren't for her circumstances. Everyone is in a mutter and onlookers are passive. Some are exiting out not in the night for trouble, not looking her in the eyes.

"Whoopsies. Who put this piece of garbage here?" Mocking her, he takes a step forward and down on her hand and the other around her ponytail. Glass crinkles underneath her hand as he stomps onto it and Tae lets out a—

Sword at his gullet and his foot and hand are halted. A quaver goes through the people as they begin to back away seeing the weapon. "Remove your foot and I won't remove your head." It's said so vehemently as the tip of his katana is already putting pressure on the soft flesh of the throat. "Windpipes do crush under a mere five pounds. Maybe less." The smoke from his cigarette is heavy as he had bitten into it. "I wonder if my sword can exert enough force to crush it too while your head goes kerplunk all over this carpet."

What can be taken from his speech is the fetor of piss and shit and Hijikata has a bit of victory from that and his legs are quivering from it.

How'd they get in exactly, shouldn't there be a bouncer? Their weapons were dingy swords and that's probably how they terrorized people to get them to do what they wanted. Right now he was going to terrorize them with a blade.

Members of the gang have their swords in the overly indecorous ways but they're not waving it around like he had expected. If they're watching how he holds his katana hopefully they never hold it like how he does.

Wrist rotating upwards, the sharpest side runs parallel and if the guy so much as sneezed he'd be choking on his blood too while bleeding out from his hacked off nose.

"That's the demonic vice chief of the Shinsengumi." Whoever whispered that was correct and he was indeed demonic, not letting his sword down and putting even more pressure.

Tae sees that his face screams murderous. She can't rip her hands away at the risk of even more glass going in and she doesn't have to kick the guy because then a fight could happen. Fights at work could be and were usually messy, she could leave it to a policeman. So all she does is stare because she's never seen Hijikata so scary and it is terrifying seeing it. For whoever has to be on the receiving end of it.

The agitator didn't apologize though he had taken his foot and hand off and the boys stalk out not before leaving collateral damage of wrecking anything that they could. That would probably be taken out of her pay and there were extra days that had to be earned from all of this.

"We know where you live! Expect a visit you whore!"

That sets Kondo on them, already on their tail and wielding his sword like a maniac while yelling profanity that is more worst than theirs in the most vivid way possible. That scares off the already frightened customers, left with the weary cadre. Mostly girls are cleaning up while some check up on Tae getting her a medical kit and uplifting motivation before going back to their task as their manager calls them over.

Putting away his sword he goes to the girl who is shaking. From anger? No he doesn't think so. Not all of it is.

"Are you okay?" Well of course she isn't but he can't really say anything else.

"I...I will be," she said with a sniff and Hijikata doesn't want her to cry, he really doesn't. Taking her by the wrist he goes to where the men's bathroom is and blocks them from the outside world as he takes scrutiny at her hands. Probably she didn't want anyone seeing her like this as she made no movement to bolt from him.

Shortly Tae sees that there are urinals and fidgets moving into a corner. Mostly she was a hulking beast of a woman but now she was...like this. He didn't know what to do with...this.

However she was still strong and not at all weakened. It's in her eyes as she refused to cry when he sees it. But she's not looking at him at all.

Her hands, Tae is staring a hole at and it's all just blood and it goes to her forearms and it drips off and down. Then taking one by the back of his hand, it causes her to jump but he just tugs her a bit forward to see for himself. From how they're standing and how he stoops so close to her—the heat goes all through her body to gather on her cheeks. Being in such a closeness to a man, it's making her embarrassed. Much less she's in the men's bathroom. That alone makes her embarrassed but also being in there with a man…

She would be in a tizzy if it wasn't for the fact she was also in bleeding onto the tiled floor.

Slits in the skin aren't as noticeable by the blood that's congealing on top of it and he doesn't know how far in it goes exactly but from the bottle cracking into her hands he can assume the worst.

Bits and pieces here and there in them and he takes the kit from her and there's blood on that too—he doesn't want to do this. But she can't because of her hands and he's pretty sure the other girls won't either. Raking through it there are tweezers and he knows it's going to be an arduous process that will leave her in tears if she wasn't crying already. So he looks her dead in the eyes and says:

"That drama? Tell me everything about it, every episode. Don't leave anything out."

Using the back of her hand, Tae rubbed at her face and it has a bit of blood and aperitif on it now. That doesn't make her smile less brighter though it just makes a bigger contrast. Which Hijikata is quite astounded by how could she maintain a smile through all of this. To her it's a practice.

While she goes on, at first weakly and backtracking and then she gets into it, forgetting that she couldn't use her hands to gesture so it's amusing to watch her use her face and feet to relay everything. Sometimes she kicks her feet when he takes out a particular piece. This is for her to not notice how much he's getting out because it's a lot but every now and then he does talk. Which makes her go on even more. Embedded in her hands is reddened green glass that's discarded with distaste.

Fragmented many are in larger shards, it's the ones that had to break off that had been pushed further into her skin that are troubling. An hour or a day could go by but he knows he can't get it all out.

Jagged are the cuts and Tae has a sizable amount of blood gone but she doesn't seem at all like she would be faint. Observing her he looks for any signs of faintness and none had come up yet. Good, then she can endure this.

"This will sting," he warns and uses the antibacterial wipes as he doesn't trust the automatic soap dispenser, as every time he puts his hand under it he misses the soap.

Hissing, Tae isn't going to let any sounds out biting her lower lip and rests her head on his shoulder, her own shoulders jumping from the restriction of not being able to hold onto anything to withstand the burning sensation that travels through her fingers. Fingers are the most sensitive of the body after all. Hijikata lets her lean on him.

When cleaned they're bleeding more as the scabbing had been washed away and he pulls out tons of disposable paper towels to keep pressure on it.

There are tears at the corner of her eyes and they've been there for a while and with his other hand he brushes them away. She probably couldn't have seen with so many in her eyes. If she's disturbed she doesn't show it as Tae hadn't shied from him as she goes on to the next episode, shakily now.

The watering in her eyes isn't too much, she could do this and when he had actually brushes her tears away she was convinced that Toshiro Hijikata was a good man, a better one than he lets on. If not he's an archangel of sorts.

Minutes go and he checks to see if the blood flow had regulated. Slowing but not to where it's stiffened but he thinks that they're too deep and he's not going to risk infection even after they bandage it.

Rinsing off the blood off and the sink to save the staff the trouble, as he dries his hands while she cradled hers. Prattling on she's talking about how the show is on hiatus and she really wants to know—

"Otae, I think we need to get these stitched," that makes her stop in mid-sentence and he meets her eyes. They're definitely misty and she's paler than what she should be.

"Oh. Okay," she says and he needs something more suited than paper towels to at least make sure they don't bleed through. From seeing his sleeve, he gets his sword—Otae places one hand on top of his hilt.

Her hand is on his through the scratchy cheap linen.

Still soft.

"Use mine."

"But—"

"It's already ruined from the glass. Please use it," she's right as the cloth was torn and no longer useable for who would want a stitched up hostess with her stitched up clothes. As her hand is unyielding on his, he gives a resigned sigh and nods. Slicing off some of her sleeve it unravels into strips that he ties onto her hand, weaving it in an intricate arrangement.

"Uh...will this stop the bleeding," he realizes he did it like how people would wrap their hands when getting into a fist fight.

"...I think so. Let's go." Then they're out of the bathroom where the remaining girls bidding them a goodbye while they say Tae could take the whole week off and Tae knows they're being too generous. Or trying to be in front of Hijikata.

It's well into the night as Hijikata and Tae walk together. Behind him is Tae and he can see how she's starting to wobble in her steps. Stopping, he lowers himself down to her.

"Get on," he said not really commanding but there is hesitation and then she fully plops on him. Putting his arms underneath her legs, she promptly slides off when he stands up. Hijikata doesn't want to hold her by arms but he tries again and brings her arms around his neck to where she braces it and she's not actually touching it with her hands. Night on-goers are avoiding them, probably thinking he was abducting her.

In all honesty he would thought she would have to be heavier than this but she isn't and he hoists her up further when she starts to slip off.

Tentative are her fingers that seem to not stay in one place from his shoulders while he tells her to not do that and then back at his neck. Soft breathing is on his nape that has goosebumps forming.

"It's not proper to do this in a kimono." Why did she have to say that so close to his ear. Why did she have to say that? Bad choice of wording seems plentiful to Hijikata. Maybe he's thinking on it too hard.

After she gives her input as their making their way to the hospital and he scoffs at her. If she says so.

In a swooping movement he gathers her in his arms. Certainly she hadn't expected that as her hands are balled to her chest and she's not saying anything now. "Do you want me to carry you like this?"

She punches him and winces, "I think I might have reopened my wounds you dumbass." Getting herself down and shooting a glare at him that conveys another punch as she strides ahead.

While she's going on her mind is all over the place. What is coming over this man? Was he trying to change his image already? Because what he had done right now she didn't appreciate it. And now her hands were throbbing even more.

This bitch he thinks. Injured yet still throwing punches and insults and putting a blame on him. Entering the lobby of the hospital they have to wait when explaining the entirety of the situation. Taking them down the receptionist tells Hijikata that it's a smoking free zone. Taking it out tobacco is smashed from his split open cigarette on his tongue and he spits it out.

"When punks go smashing ladies hands into Dom Pérignon justice is needed," Tae said breezy, while sitting in a plastic chair. There's a canned drink in her lap and in his hand and those are the sole things Hijikata had paid for.

"Justice you got. Kondo probably has them now," Hijikata said while he files the admission. It's meant to be reassuring but she just squirms at the mentioning.

As she couldn't open her can which she's getting mad at, Hijikata does it for her and it fizzes on him as he yelps and she giggles because she can't help it. Despite getting his kimono that was stained and now sticky he's disgruntled but it's felicitous that she laughed. Tae finds immense opulence in her sticky soda from how parched she had been and how she did get her revenge from that it had erupted on him.

"So...do you want to hear more of the drama?" She asks. She wouldn't if he doesn't want to and he lets her. This time she does use her hands to illustrate herself while taking gulps between talking. Between his teeth is some of the herbs that he hadn't gotten out, and he doesn't really backwash his drink to get it out. It does have a citrus aftertaste that makes it bearable.

Just the two of them wait there as he listens to her and she talks. He doesn't mind that it's a drama she talks about.

The doctor sees them in and has an overview of what is to be finished and then he gets out the equipment to sew it up and Hijikata is on standby while waiting for her. To take her home as those hooligans knew where she lived. And it was the night and he wouldn't be a proper man if he didn't. He was a policeman and he was doing his duty. Absolute duty. Then she pulls him over when one hand is done.

"Could I hold your hand," Tae blurts and she goes on, "Because it hurts and I need something to hold to." In spite of herself she's aware of what she's saying and she dislikes it so much.

Why not the chair or the doctor himself? Yet he knows it's not his hand she really wants but it's the support behind it, at least that's what he thinks of. So he lends her it letting her grip it with her bone-crushing brawn whilst the doctor makes a snide comment that makes it even more painful for the two of them.

"We are not a couple, what are you a cliched plot device," she grits out as she clenches Hijikata's hand as if they're going to arm wrestle. And they are as he's trying to wrestle his hand back but she doesn't seem to notice or care.

When it's over he probably needs an x-ray to from his disfigured hand.

As it's dark, he's taking her home at a slower gait. His eyes are more heedful of what stays in the shadows. Unsure to hover behind her or lead the way he matches her speed as they walk to her house all the while she's concluding the drama.

It doesn't sound too bad besides the many love triangles. Then again dramas weren't his thing.

Lights from the buildings illuminate on them for their source of light. Midway from the residency, it might have made her feel better by getting some of the ice cream she liked so much but the store is already closed and there's nothing he can do at least in the limits of law.

Setting foot at the place he gives it a overlook but doesn't see anything or hear anything that makes him want go through the whole place. Those people knew where she lived and with the indication of their words and how execrable their meaning was, he had to be sure. Yet she's already turning to him and they stand there.

"Thank you for this." She says as they come to the doors and they both know she's thanking him for so much more. "Would you like to come in? Maybe now you won't take off." This time he isn't as obligated and he does need to make up for last time. What better time then now?

When they do get inside they're both jumped by children. Very vicious, tenacious ones.

Abruptly there's a Yato girl bawling on Tae with garbled words and Hijikata getting assaulted by Tae's kid brother as the boy kicks at him and tries to make him bend to his height. This doesn't last as they're whisked by the collars of their clothes.

"Kids go play somewhere else while I talk to these ones that have been out too late." Both of them having the two 'kids' taken off of them see their surrogate father as Gintoki humors them with a crooked grin that don't at all go with his dead fish eyes. "What have you two been doing, having a rendezvous?"

* * *

 **A/N** : Spring break is almost over and that's when I have to get back to life and exams haha. So don't expect daily updates it'll be slower but not monthly (?) I don't think. It depends as life can get hectic. I hope more people discover this couple and so it won't be as lonely. Anyway I didn't mean to leave it on a cliff hanger.

It's a bit clustered the viewpoints but it's in a third person omniscient type of thing I guess.

I might change it a bit but right now I'll put this out as I'm somewhat okay with this.

Review please!

 **EDIT** : I'm reading up on my trivia because it's been like a year and I am confusing myself with all of this aH.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N** : Sorry for the late update! This chapter is mostly kinda dialogue based so it was really hard for me to be satisfied with because I don't like so much talking in one chapter. I also notice I switch from past to present tense, so my bad it's a habit!

Also my internet has been going on and off and I'm suffering from writer's block so this was so hard for me. Anyway enough of my rambling!

* * *

When at Someone's House Don't Make Yourself at Home Yet

* * *

From that Hijikata automatically retorted in more ways than one. Going forward he meets him and they both invade their personal space getting their faces way too close per usual. "Who are you calling a kid?" Hijikata takes his baiting line and Gintoki is reeling him in, hook, line, and sinker.

"Oh ho ho?〜 So you admit that you're on a rendezvous? Naughty."

They go back and forth as Shinpachi herds his sister to the couch. Inevitably, Kagura had ransacked their fridge and junk food that had stowed away and is munching on some custard pudding and it's the one that Tae had been saving.

Which was remarkable as she had hidden it in a place where even she had forgotten she had put it there. Probably from all the hiding and taking she and Gintoki did to eat as many sweets before the other.

"Sis what were you doing with him?" Shinpachi points at Hijikata. "Is the gorilla behind this? Is he?!" His voice is going to be where it's screeching and Tae puts her foot down there.

"Shin-chan stop!" Her brother whines at her. Then she goes to Hijikata and latched on his upper arm that takes him out of his argument end with Gintoki that makes the latter glance at them. "I invited him for tea! Okay?"

From that they're all quiet except her brother is relentless. To her younger brother that didn't seem to be satisfied with anything he was analyzing into everything that she was saying.

"At this time of night?!" Shinpachi goes on.

"I think that's a—a booty call," Kagura adds as she eats off every morsel from her pudding and that makes Shinpachi even more freaked out as if he's getting grey and white hairs from just talking about this.

"Yes because last time he had left before I could give him any." She really wasn't going to let this go. Or at least Tae was telling her brother what did happen but still she could have left it at an invitation for tea.

Instead Shinpachi going as fast as steamboat on a collision course and he barrages through it.

"There was a last time? Will there be another time?! IS THIS THE ANOTHER TIME!" Shinpachi is practically screeching like a harpy and Hijikata is agitated more than anything else as the boy had tried to make him kneel when grabbing at his neck earlier. Then he's quieter. "Sis your hands…"

It's when he sees her hands that she had been hiding in the fabric with the gauze that couldn't be hidden unless she really hid it. Which wasn't what she was going for as she needed to be inconspicuous but not too inconspicuous. Well that was gone. There's no point to putting it behind her back but she does it anyway.

Double teamed, Shinpachi reaches for one hand and Gintoki had the other in an instant. Taking how it went to the beginning of her fingers to the start of her wrist they let go when that caused her the slightest of pain of just grabbing her hands.

Then they look at Hijikata as they have take their wooden swords out from their waistbands.

Although the man isn't threatened by wooden swords and a teenager and a lax samurai he puts his hand on the hilt of his.

Not at all needing her house to become a battleground she jumps in, between them actually to try and diffuse the situation.

"No you've got the wrong idea!" She didn't mean to make this such a mess and she defends the man from the two most protective idiots in her life. "A bottle smashed in my hands because of some delinquents! Do I have to bash it in your brains so you can hear properly?"

He didn't have time to deal with this so why should he stay. "Since you have this I guess I'll be leaving then, farewell," there's a iron grip at his arm now.

"No. Stay," like she's making him heel and he couldn't shake her off so he does what she said.

Tripling teaming now, Kagura tilts her head back with a devious smirking grin. "Hey Gin-chan do you believe this?"

He plays along with her, "Who knows what he's done. This is fun right. Right Hijikata-kun?"

"I should go," he's doesn't want to deal with this and would leave her at the mercy of them and she isn't having any of that. With darkened eyes and a smile he's petrified.

Loosening her arms he slides his arm from her and moves a bit but doesn't leave as he assesses what she's doing as her hands are at her side. It's then that she speaks. "Guys," it's quieter tone of voice one that she knows they'll listen to. If they don't she'll make them. At that Hijikata wisely stepped from her.

They do stop for the time being and she continues. "Hijikata-san was just doing his job. Then he escorted me home." When they still look at him hard and a bit still not convinced she sighs. "That's all it is." And that's that as she doesn't want to deal with it and she is a bit fatigued from how much blood that had been lost.

From that Hijikata looks to her. "You alright?" He doesn't put his hand on her shoulder and instead puts them in the sleeve of his kimono. "You should lie down." The miniscule dried blood on his kimono, the trio had also noticed but were more focused on the conversation before them.

"Maybe we can continue tea later on another day," she said and yawns because it is later than usual and what occurred prior was toiling and he nods, smoking on his cigarette.

As the three others had powered on the television and made themselves at home while the they had been talking, the one or two minutes that they had.

"Hey stop yabbering," Gintoki says as they had watched them exchange words but there isn't hostility anymore. At least he knew that they're were being truthful now and he had did it to rile Hijikata, it was customary, but he was more defensive this time which did make him store that tidbit away. "You aren't the main character here! The show has part of my name in it, it's me!"

Then he's smacked by Shinpachi to not break the fourth wall and he just clicks his tongue at him while Kagura goes on to break the fourth wall again. "Actually mayo guy was suppose to be the main character so that's why you and him are so alike." Then they're all fighting in a dog pile, shouting while fighting with one another and Tae just looks at them wistfully.

Incredibly out of place, Hijikata goes to the doors but there's a tugging at him. When he sees who's doing it, it's Tae who looks at him with a gentleness he can't name.

"Goodnight and...be safe." And then the doors shut behind him and he takes a few paces and sighs.

That's what he should be saying to her.

Oddly enough he's tired too, as if all the excitement (if it could be called that), from earlier had worn him out, and he goes back to the Shinsengumi headquarters to rest. While lying there just training his eyes on the off light fixture, he was going to see Kondo tomorrow if he had gotten the dispute.

—

When going back inside, Tae assumes that her brother won't let it go.

Kagura pipes up, "So nothing happened?" And Tae shakes her head.

"I've already said that I was cut by the bottle because of some damned guys."

Kagura plods on, "No I mean you and mayo head."

The two others in the room face her expectantly and she repeats herself again and this time cracking her knuckles that are somehow audible through the wrappings.

As two of Yorozuya began to leave, along with delectables they could carry in their mouth and arms, Shinpachi isn't as angry he's just concerned.

"Are you really okay Sis?" it's more to her hands that he says that and she nods which lets him relent before he prattles on about something and she lets him until he tuckered himself out which wasn't long. Even Shinpachi could get tired of himself.

Then they both go to bed and she can't get comfortable laying still on the padding.

Whether she is unsettled by what had transpired during the night to this hour she doesn't know. Deciding to clear her head with cold tea that had been left over in the fridge; it's bitter but she drinks it anyway she feels better from the antioxidants. Then she turns on the television and when mindlessly looking at infomercials at the things that were being telemarketed.

As the television became a soundless distraction, she thought to herself.

Why had Hijikata done all of that for her. If she would have known, he would have probably taken her to the hospital and left her there. Then again she wasn't close to him and she didn't know if the man had inner motives.

For all she knew he could have just stayed because it knew that Kondo could use him as intel.

Yet he had did all of this and she had let him. Which made her ponder as she stared at her hands. Every once in awhile there would be a throbbing and a needling itch as if it were in her skin but then it would disappear.

It hadn't hurt as much as before.

Her legs are drawn up to her chin as she just thinks. About anything really as she needs to get herself tired enough. It's when her thoughts had begun to be the equivalent to mush and rambles of not thought through things that would be sufficient enough.

Powering off the television as it had been wasting electricity, she goes back to bed and attempts not to have anymore thoughts pertaining that matter.

"Otae-san if you're having trouble sleeping I know what can help—" Kondo doesn't get to explain himself as Tae had beaten him.

On the other side of the dojo, Shinpachi hears the animalistic hooting of the man that his sister pummeled regularly and is happy to hear that his sister isn't as affected as he had originally thought.

—

When it's the morning they go through their daily practices and it isn't patrol but it's a day with paperwork and going through files and dealing with taxing and funding with a multitude of numbers and all of them make excuses except him because work is work.

Work is what he does and what he has to do. Still it doesn't mean that he does it willingly.

Vexed of seeing the jumbled letters that's he's beginning to have anpan flashbacks he pushes the unfinished work to the side and stretches his arms which makes them cramp up afterwards. Well he guessed that he couldn't do anything about cramps. Then he goes to seek out Kondo which isn't hard as he's slacking off with Sougo playing Mortal Combat.

"Fatality! FATALITY!" Kondo is jamming all the buttons with every finger available while Sougo does a combo attack and it goes to the animation sequence that's way too embellished with the voice boom finishing the opponent off. Kicking his feet at the floor, Kondo yells at losing and Sougo proceeds to the next round.

It's then they noticed him, by the smoke that trails after him and the mayonnaise too. "Oh Hijikata-san finally become a rebel like the rest of us?" Sougo says as the fighting commences.

At the choosing of their characters it wasn't a surprise why Sougo had a winning streak. Despite Kondo was pressing at all the buttons at his best while Sougo just moved his manually.

"Shouldn't you be doing your paperwork," it comes out less of a query and more of a exasperation as the two men duel it out in video games.

"Too much work is bad for you Toshi," Kondo says from the corner of his mouth and Hijikata huffs on.

"Kondo-san you're the person that put more work on my desk even though it's your's to do," he said and Kondo just bypasses him so he waits for them to finish their game which takes a minute or two with Sougo beating him and Kondo saying he hacked the game or jailbroke it.

Then they're in his room while he sits down at his desk to finish his writing. It's only Kondo as Sougo went to go do whatever he did, it wasn't his work, that Hijikata was sure of. For someone to be a prodigy child he did lack in doing the actual paperwork.

"What is it Toshi?" Kondo said as he does his swinging in his room and Hijikata lets him though is weary of it going through the thin screens of his door. "Got some lady troubles? Because I can give you pointers from all those girl games."

As he dictates each stroke as it comes in through second nature he brings it up, "The gang from yesterday," that makes his swings halt and he turns to him, "did you catch them?" The older man then reclines onto the wall, the sword between his legs and arms as he sits.

"Detained in a cell at the moment but couldn't get the leader." Hijikata doesn't pry because he's probably mad at that. "But they said that there are more of them and they'll have a grudge with us and the girls—well Otae-san is their main target from what they had said." The man looks thoughtful. "I should put them through an excruciating thing of where we get bottles and jam it in rectally."

From how he knew that Tae was at home probably struggling to do anything without touching anything which was basically impossible and Hijikata just goes back to his task.

"So who are they exactly?" Hijikata asks.

That's when the man has a serious look rather than the calmer one he had before. "It's seems that they have bigger friends. You know those beat up swords? They had gotten them from the kabuki-mono, and that's more than I had thought," Kondo admits.

Ink drips on the paper ruining the whole thing as it smears through the parchment as Hijikata has his hand in midair before it moves.

"Jobless samurai in gangs with thugs now. They're easy to spot with their clothing and the problematic behavior but even then they're a handful," Hijikata puts down the brush and doesn't know what to do with the splotching. White out can't do much on watery ink and so he would have to redo it.

Well that was enough for one day he leans back on his arms and takes a cigarette and smokes it, the smoke potent as it burns through his nose in a long exhale.

"I think I'll have to stalk Otae-san overtime," Kondo nods to himself, putting his chin on his index finger and thumb. "Then she'll be safe."

Putting away the table and the ink equipment in the closet he has but didn't use as much as he should, he sits on the floor across from Kondo.

"She wouldn't like that and she may lash out more that she can't do much," Hijikata said and Kondo takes his hand off of his chin. That was spot on what had happened to Kondo last night and his Toshi had the greatest intuition of women.

Resolute the man puts his hands on his knees switching his sitting for emphasis to cross legged. "Exactly why I should stalk her. She can't protect herself like that!" He's hopeless.

Crawling to him, Kondo comes in close and squints at Hijikata's face. The man veers from his face and Hijikata frowns to why he was doing that.

"That reminds me, what were you and Otae-san doing while I was the hero of the day?" As he had been the hero of the day as he had claimed, he hadn't been acknowledged by the woman he was infatuated with and was very sore about it.

Moving him with the back of his forearm he breathes in more nicotine before speaking.

"All I did was take care of her injury and take her home," Hijikata said as if giving an report and Kondo then sits on the back of his heels, nodding at him.

Then a grand idea comes to mind.

"Why not protect her with me? That'll make her feel safer having two instead of one!" Kondo suggests and that makes Hijikata stand up and slide back the screen door. Looking over his shoulder he talks.

"That gorilla woman can handle herself. Besides if she knew that we were doing that wouldn't she get annoyed that she has two stalkers? And I don't want to look like you being all beaten up and having my status as a Class A stalker." And then he's off leaving Kondo to think by himself.

"I'm at least a Class S stalker," Kondo said aloud.

—

He really doesn't need to be here.

But he knocks on the door frame and hears roughhousing. Furniture scraps on the wooden floor and voices are too noisy for tranquilly for this part of town. Letting himself in, he doesn't take off his shoes as it wouldn't be long and goes into the living room.

Presumably there's Gintoki and Kagura nowhere to be seen, the couches overturned as they hide in them.

"Shush Kagura, if we don't talk maybe the tax robber won't—" it's too late for that as the girl launches herself at the couch toppling it and landing onto him as she demands where he had out the remaining mochi. Bubbling up was an protest, the man takes the hefty weight of the small girl as she pounds it out of him and eats it, relishing it to his demise. Licking fingers and all while using his shirt as a napkin.

While witnessing this, anomaly, he clears his throat and then they're turning over the furniture and they sit on it as if nothing had happened. It's the two of them as Hijikata hadn't seen the boy and his straight man act. Good that'll make this easier for the both of them.

"Where's the other one?" Hijikata said as he sat on the opposite side.

"You mean Sadaharu? Probably defecating somewhere," Gintoki said as he read his JUMP whilst picking his nose.

From that Hijikata is annoyed and half thinks what treasure could be hiding in his nostril for him to do that. When he pulls out his finger it's a bit blood covered and Gin just wipes it on Kagura's shirt as it'll add more color to it he says while she kicks him making his nose really bleed.

"No I mean—glasses boy," Hijikata tried again and Gintoki looked at him from his lackluster eyes.

"Why do you need to know? Are you going to rob him next?" His nose is plugged and he snorts out.

"I'm not robbing anyone!" Hijikata yells at him and Gintoki is more occupied as he couldn't reach a scratch on his back so he made Kagura do it much to her bregrudgment.

While then it some sort of a back massage as she tries to find the spot to scratch at, which is his whole back before she gets that she got tricked into giving him a massage and scratching.

"He's at home taking care of boss lady," Kagura answers while she had roll onto her back.

When hearing that he leans back. Deducting names that meant that was Tae. Appearing to be unperturbed he takes a prolonged draw on his cigarette. Crossing his legs he does the same to his arm to be as serious as possible.

"Is that so?" The he completely gets rid of his posture and leans forward with his forearms on his legs. "Yorozuya I have a favor to ask."

Then Gintoki lets out a guffaw as his comic book flies off the couch and landing on some pages that'll crinkle from the resulting fall. While his brow twitching from his otherwise stone still sitting, he let the man have his laughing fit.

Gintoki is sure that there are tears from his laughter and he then pulls a face that is just so arrogant that Hijikata is compelled to punch off him.

"You asking us a favor?" While he said that he puts his hand into his kimono while he sits languidly, legs out and arms behind his head like he's a big shot yet he's making at the most a minimalist's income and is overdue on rent and many other things. "What is it then? We have many customers besides you, you're a dime a dozen."

"What's with the sudden change?" Hijikata mutters before snapping, "I'm your only customer at the moment you idiot!"

"That's not true there's—"

"Shut up!"

Taking a longer breath he blows it out and the odor makes Gintoki's nose wrinkle. While he smokes, he speaks.

"Recently there has been more gang activity and I suspect that worthless samurai are pairing up with them." That's aimed at Gintoki and he just blinks. Either he didn't get or that was his response. "Otae might be a target now that she angered some of them." Concluding his statement because he doesn't need to go that far into it and it's not their business, he instead looks around the room and not at the other man. "So, will you look after her?"

There's a silence and Gintoki slumps back. "If you pay me a small loan of a million yen—"

"Why do I have to pay you, and why is it a million yen?! I thought since you're friends that'll you'll do it for free!" Hijikata roars at him and Gintoki frowns.

"Unlike you policemen that prey on hard workers like me—" Hijikata barks out a laugh and Gintoki grumbled. "If you're so concerned, do it yourself? You're a policeman, isn't protecting citizens what you do when you're done with robbing them?" (Again with the robbing thing?)

Why had he even decided this was a good idea? This was an utter disuse of his time and efforts.

"Fine, forget I asked." He stops and doesn't look back. "Better yet, forget that I even came here." Then he's gone the scent of the cancerous residue left from him.

Disconcerted by the gangs that are having more diversity to them that it may be a problem later and the fact that he had come for him for something as bizarre to protect one of the most savage women's he knew to date, Gintoki doesn't think too much on it as he and Kagura go back to what they were doing. In his opinion cliques would be cliques and there would be a falling out somewhere. Whether it would be tomorrow or it had happened yesterday he wouldn't know.

To be quite honest to himself, Hijikata expected to not get anywhere with the odd jobs. When going down the unpaved walkways he had also expected to be assailed by gangs but he hadn't. Not yet at least.

Then he's back there, at the dojo that though it was taken care of yet it had no students to teach. Why was he back here again?

Perhaps to not be in her debt anymore. If he could, the events from last night could be taken as a debt no longer there but he wasn't that petty to use that.

What man would he be to take advantage of a woman (no matter how volatile they could be) in any variety of pain.

Indebted was something that didn't bode well with him. Rather he would be the one that is the person that's the debtor.

Going to the entry, he makes himself known and it opens Tae at first looking at his neck then inclining her head up to see him. Her hands are still wrapped in the gauze tape that is held with a metal tab. Yet she still uses them despite that as her fist is going to his face and he almost takes it to the face.

"What the hell was that for?" he growled at her and she put one of her hands to her chest as if she was the one that had a heart attack.

"I thought that the gorilla had sent you because in the middle of the night he had somehow crept in my bed," that made him cringe inwardly as his commander had gone too far, and her eyes had a terrible aura. "Don't tell me you are doing his favors?"

He's reminded of when he had to go because Kondo had forced him to and the whole marriage fiasco. Being a mummy for an entire month wasn't something he had enjoyed spectacularly.

"No he can do his own schemes," Hijikata said and Tae studied him. Then she creaks the doors open, wider for him.

"Well I guess you can have tea."

Being welcomed in, he takes her up on the offer once more.

* * *

 **A/N** : Okay so the references are there and I'm honestly not going to explain myself haha. I actually put a Donald Trump quote in there how horrible. Nevermind.

References: Mortal Combat, Donald Trump, and probably a few others.

kabuki-mono: basically what Hijikata said. Jobless samurai that have turned bad.

Also there is a large difference between '〜' and '~'. The first is a wave dash used mostly in Japanese while the second is a tilda for numbers. Do your research!

It's like 2 am and there will be mistakes but I finally finished this chapter oh my god.

R&R please!


End file.
